Edward W. Crosby

Soon after arriving at Kent State he became one of the key organizers of the first celebration of Black History Month in the U.S., which occurred in February 1970. It was six years later, during the U.S. bicentennial, that the expansion of Negro History Week, as it had been called, was recognized nationally when then President Gerald R. Ford delivered to the nation regarding the observance of Black History Month.

The center went through a number of phases and was located in a number of buildings before finally ending up in the Old Student Union, now Oscar Ritchie Hall. Dr. Crosby visualized the center and the Institute as institutions that should work in tandem with each other. The Center of Pan-African Culture was established in 1970, through the combined efforts of Crosby, his staff and the leaders of the Black United Students at Kent State, providing a home for students to engage in cultural activities and a home for IAAA.

Crosby founded and served as the director of the Institute for African American Affairs (IAAA) from 1969 to 1976. In 1976 the institute successfully petitioned Kent State for departmental status, which gave birth to the Department of Pan-African Studies (DPAS); thus Dr. Crosby served for 18 years as the department's first chair. The IAAA still exists as a community development and research institute at Kent State.

One of the lessons of East St. Louis was the importance of an interdisciplinary, holistic approach to Black education. In East St. Louis EHE was partnered with Katherine Dunham’s Performing Arts Training Center (PATC). The symbiotic relationship between EHE and PATC attracted educators, as well as cultural icons from all over the U.S. and beyond to East St. Louis, which generated a lot of energy in the community and attracted community members from all walks of life. On arriving at Kent, knowing the value of this kind of symbiosis, Crosby took on the task of developing an academic program modeled after the one he had previously spearheaded in East St. Louis and also took on the task of creating a cultural center that could work in tandem with the newly formed Institute for African American Affairs (IAAA). For 23 years this dual institution functioned with one purpose in mind, which was to provide an environment that reaffirmed the value of African-American culture while helping their students learn to use the academic skills necessary to graduate from a four-year institution in the study and promulgation of this culture. The implementation of this kind of Black pedagogy has led to the successful graduation of hundreds, if not thousands, of students, that wouldn't have made it otherwise, many of which have devoted their careers to working in Black communities all over the U.S. The Human Relations Center, which was founded in 1968, attempted to do this kind of work, however their perspective was that the students needed to assimilate. The Institute validated the students and their culture as worthy of emulation. The difference between the two could not be more clear cut.

Initially a straight "A" student and an aspiring priest, Crosby's transfer from St. Edward's to Cleveland's public schools paralleled a decline in his academic performance as well as his increased truancy from school and an involvement in a number of delinquent activities. He served in the United States military and was stationed in England. Nevertheless, Crosby would go on to earn a BA in Spanish in 1957 and an MA in German in 1959, both from Kent State University; and a PhD in medieval German languages and literature and medieval history from the University of Kansas in 1965. In 1957 he began teaching at Kent State and subsequently held teaching positions at a number of other institutions, including Hiram College, Tuskegee Institute, Southern Illinois University and the University of Washington.

Edward Warren Crosby (November 4, 1932 – February 10, 2021), was an African-American professor/administrator emeritus, in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University (KSU). As a pioneer in the field of Black education his most notable accomplishments include the establishment of Black History Month and the Department of Pan-African Studies at KSU. The Institute for African American Affairs (1969) and the Center of Pan-African Culture (1970) were two of the first institutions of their kind to be established at institutions of higher education.